I think it's silly that they talk about the effect that SuperMoons have on the tide. From that video, I understand a SuperMoon to be a full moon when the moon is at the perigee of its orbit. That only happens about once a year.

However, the moon is at the perigee of its orbit about once a month*. This would affect the tide in the same way, whether it appears to be a "full moon" (SuperMoon) or not.

*The word "month" is based on "moon," because the moon orbits the Earth approximately once per month.

Not quite correct deozaan : "The scientific term for the phenomenon is "perigee moon." Full Moons vary in size because of the oval shape of the Moon's orbit. The Moon follows an elliptical path around Earth with one side ("perigee") about 50,000 km closer than the other ("apogee"). Full Moons that occur on the perigee side of the Moon's orbit seem extra big and bright."

So it happens about once a year.

.: I use K-Meleon - the browser you can control - but I love Pale Moon too :.

Not quite correct deozaan : "The scientific term for the phenomenon is "perigee moon." Full Moons vary in size because of the oval shape of the Moon's orbit. The Moon follows an elliptical path around Earth with one side ("perigee") about 50,000 km closer than the other ("apogee"). Full Moons that occur on the perigee side of the Moon's orbit seem extra big and bright."

Huh? I know that a Super Moon happens about once a year. What I was saying is that the moon is at its perigee about once a month. My point was that the tidal forces created by the moon's gravity at its perigee shouldn't be any different whether the moon appeared to be "full" or not.

However, I failed to take into consideration whether or not the sun affects tides. I'd never heard of such a thing but it appears that SeraphimLabs is suggesting that it does.

Perigee should have a little influence on increased tides because the moon is a bit closer to the Earth at perigee. It doesn't matter whether the moon is full or not (full moon has nothing to do with perigee which simply means the closest point in the orbit of one body to another). The super moon phenomenon is just a factor of the relative positions of the Sun, Moon and Earth at the Moon's perigee.

If you wonder if the Sun has any effect on tides look at some of the moons of Jupiter - the tidal forces of the attraction of Jupiter and the Sun (and other moons) cause some of the moons to physically deform and contract to such an extent that they cause the moon to heat up. See, for example, Io (http://www.planetary...o/tidal_heating.html) where tidal interactions of the Sun, other moons and Jupiter combine to keep Io hot enough to be volcanic. Without those tidal forces Io would be a dead lump of rock.